<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Poppies Wilt in Autumn by LiterallyThePresident</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29583792">Poppies Wilt in Autumn</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiterallyThePresident/pseuds/LiterallyThePresident'>LiterallyThePresident</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hades (Video Game 2018)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Hadestown References, Hypnos gets a sort of Persephone deal, Let Hypnos Be Bitter and Angry, Thinly explained plot devices, brief mentions of drug use</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 00:15:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,854</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29583792</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiterallyThePresident/pseuds/LiterallyThePresident</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>On the road to Hell there was a railroad line, and a brother desperate to make things right</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hypnos &amp; Thanatos (Hades Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>80</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Poppies Wilt in Autumn</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I have fallen into Hadestown hell and I don’t expect I’ll return. Mrs. Obama, it’s been an honor</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>
    <span>The only way to preserve his essence is to split it,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Chaos had whispered as Thanatos cradled Hypnos’ limp body, the looming being utterly indifferent to the tears of gold streaming silently down Death’s face, </span>
  <em>
    <span>In order to save his life, you must lose a part of him</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Chaos was cruel and kind in equal measure, knowing exactly where to strike at Thanatos’ heart, knowing which words would hurt him most. And the worst part was, he was certain it wasn’t intentional. They only said what everyone was surely thinking. Thanatos had never given his brother the time he deserved, the affection he craved, the support he needed. And that failing was cruelly shoved back in his face when Hypnos’ godhood had failed him, a callous trick of the Fates made terribly real the instant Hypnos had collapsed into his arms mid-scolding and sent the House into a panicked uproar. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>If Thanatos had breath, it would have caught. If he had a heart, it would have stopped dead in his chest. If he had blood, it would have frozen in his veins. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But he had none of that. All he had were eyes to fill with panic, arms to hold that frail body close, a voice to shout his brother’s name, and a mind to whirl with regret.</span>
</p><p><em><span>Like your Queen, he</span></em> <em><span>will spend six months on the surface among the mortals, and six months in the underworld among family,</span></em><span> Chaos had murmured, cupping Hypnos almost tenderly in their massive palm as they fed their power into him, </span><em><span>He will change. He will learn new things, for good and for ill. He may even become unrecognizable to you. But never forget, O’ Death. Your brother is always just under the surface</span></em></p><p>
  <span>Thanatos had paid no attention to those words at the time, too focused on Hypnos to care about anything else. But Chaos, as always, had been right. Once all had quieted down and a newly revived Hypnos had been sent to the surface after months under Thanatos’ care, his absence was like a physical wound in Thanatos’ chest, and he’d spent the first six months without his twin in a haze, focusing on work and only work to distract himself from Hypnos’ unmanned post. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>To his despair, the centuries on the surface had indeed begun to change his brother, slowly but surely. Thanatos could hardly bear it some days when he traveled to the surface as autumn began to wind down, waiting at the train station to take an increasingly reluctant Hypnos home. Hypnos was more embroiled in mortal affairs now, their wars and their revolutions, their stories and songs, their dreams and inventions. He befriended them, defended them, sang to them in their dreams like a doting parent, loving them fiercely like he’d only ever loved his family before. He thrived under the sun, flourished among the bright poppy fields, shone like a star in the pale light of the moon. The underworld only seemed to diminish him now, to </span>
  <em>
    <span>bore</span>
  </em>
  <span> him, and that more than anything frightened Thanatos. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And when Thanatos was scared to lose something, he </span>
  <em>
    <span>clung.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, come </span>
  </em>
  <b>
    <em>on,</em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span> Than!</span>
  </em>
  <span> Hypnos had glared at him from the chaise he lounged on, pure white smoke drifting from the pipe held elegantly in his hand, exhaling softly from his downturned lips, </span>
  <em>
    <span>That was not six months! Come back in two weeks at least, yeah? Autumn’s not over yet.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>When he looked into those sleepy eyes now, he didn’t see the lazy goofball who never took anything seriously, he didn’t see the carefree laughter or guileless smile of his sweet twin. Now those golden eyes held a hint of steel, when not hazy with whatever new sedative the mortals had come up with, and threaded through with a jadedness that Thanatos would forever curse himself for not preventing. Now, he argued with Thanatos, sniped mean yet accurate comments when Thanatos was being stubborn, hid away with Zagreus and filled the prince’s head with tales of the surface, growing sullen and annoyed when Thanatos tried to chime in. Thanatos often wondered how much of that sharp bitterness was because of his time on the surface and how much had always been simmering just under his skin, repressed and concealed until the mortals taught him that it was okay to express his anger. Either way, the damage was done, and all Thanatos could do was mitigate the damage and cling desperately to the relationship they had. </p><p>
  <span>Unfortunately, the tighter he clung, the more Hypnos pulled away. And the more Hypnos pulled away, the tighter Thanatos clung. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>How did I ever bear it down here, Than? I’m bored to </span>
  </em>
  <b>
    <em>death. </em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span>Ha, get it? Gods, not even a chuckle, huh? Oh, don’t look at me like that, come on, now what did I do wrong now?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Now as Thanatos’ train car pulled to a stop at an empty station, his searching eyes instantly found Hypnos’ lanky form. Hypnos’ glare was one of bitter annoyance as he stood in the crisp autumn air with arms crossed, the suitcase resting beside him packed with obvious last-minute haste. Thanatos stepped off the train and onto the platform, glancing around to make sure none of Hypnos’ mortal friends were around this time to glare at him for the egregious crime of wanting his brother to come home. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hypnos.” he greeted softly, offering his hand for Hypnos to take, trying for a warm smile. Hypnos’ eyes glanced to the proffered hand, but he made no move to take it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re early.” Hypnos bit out by way of greeting, and Thanatos’ smile turned sad even as his eyes greedily catalogued each change in Hypnos since last winter, what changed and what stayed the same.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I missed you.” he said simply, and Hypnos scoffed as if the very idea was ridiculous to him. Thanatos was not as bothered by it as he’d been decades ago. He had long grown used to Hypnos’ bitterness. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Love me? You didn’t save me because you </span>
  </em>
  <b>
    <em>love</em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span> me, Than! You saved me to assuage your own guilty conscience, and because Zagreus wanted you to!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>You can believe what you want, Hypnos. But no matter how bitter you act, I won’t stop trying to right the wrongs I’ve done to you. Disbelieve it all you want, curse my ineptitude to the stars and back, but I love you and that is </span>
  </em>
  <b>
    <em>never</em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span> going to change.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He laid a hand at Hypnos’ elbow as he stepped onto the train, and he considered it a victory when his brother didn’t pull away from the touch. He already felt the weight on his shoulders grow lighter at his brother’s mere presence, the ache in his soul fading once his twin was within arms reach again, the near constant weight in his chest vanishing as Hypnos glanced at him with appraising eyes, flitting over him as if he too was cataloguing the changes since they last met. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You get thinner?” Hypnos asked with a casualness just short of feigned, flopping dramatically onto the couch Zagreus had commissioned for his comfort on the long trip to and from the surface, carelessly tossing his suitcase aside as he fixed Thanatos with an unimpressed look, “Zag not taking proper care of you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have been fine.” Thanatos replied carefully, trying not to sound too hopeful at the poorly hidden show of concern, “I have been doing my job.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As usual.” Hypnos rolled his eyes, “Work work work, that’s my Than, gosh you never slow down, do you? Hey, I’ve got some morphine in my case, you should really give it a try sometime.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, thank you.” Thanatos thought with a shudder of the blank eyes of the mortals who allowed such drugs to overtake them, the sheer number of souls who died from it. The fact that Hypnos made recreational use of those substances had enraged Thanatos at first, and they’d gotten into quite the fight over it, but like all of their fights it was over within a week, once Hypnos proved himself more than capable of handling it. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>You never trust me with anything, Than, and that’s the problem! I know you think you have to protect me, but I’ve managed without you just fine these past few centuries. Longer than that, even, because you used to just ignore me!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s made from my flower.” Hypnos sang, kicking off his shoes without care, nonchalant and free in a way Thanatos could never be, “Poppy seeds, remember you used to love those.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As a child.” Thanatos murmured with a soft smile, “You’d feed them to me when I was sick.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I had to sneak them under mom’s nose.” Hypnos chuckled, “Before you decided your work was more important than your brother.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Must you always say such unkind things?” Thanatos' smile faded as Hypnos’ eyes slid over to meet his, cool and already drooping with the threat of sleep. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, don’t you ever get tired of being a nice little doormat?” he yawned, stretching as he settled into the couch, “Don’t you ever just wanna go apeshit?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not particularly.” Thanatos commented, and Hypnos snorted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s your problem, Than.” he pulled his sleep mask from his pocket and slid it on, blocking Thanatos’ view of his eyes, “You never learned to relax, even after your whirlwind romance with Zagreus.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I-“</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No more talking.” Hypnos waved his hand lazily, “Sleep time now. Wake me when we’re home, yeah?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...I will.” Thanatos murmured with a small curve of his lips, watching fondly as Hypnos settled in for his long nap. Home, he had called it. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Home</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Somewhere deep inside, he still thought of the underworld, of his family, as home. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The train whistle blew, and the floor beneath them rumbled as the train started its slow pull out of the station, starting the long journey to the underworld. Hypnos fell asleep quick as ever, his breaths evening out and his limbs going loose and languid. Thanatos stared at him a moment, just… taking him in. Despite the arrangement being in place for centuries, Thanatos never got used to his twin not being a moment away. The House was quieter without him, everyone’s mood a touch more somber, the shades just a touch more fearful of what awaited them. Thanatos hated every moment of it. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Hypnos… I don’t think I could bear losing the bond we have. Is there any way, any way at all, that I can chase that bitterness from your eyes?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>It’s time for summer, Than. We’ll… We’ll try again next autumn, okay?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Wait for me?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Always do.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Thanatos carefully sat on the couch beside his brother, holding in a smile when Hypnos unconsciously pressed closer to him. He lifted his hand and, after a moment of hesitation, buried his fingers in that downy white hair. His sigh of relief, of a tension fading, was echoed by Hypnos, the twins exhaling in unison as some missing piece of their souls clicked into place once again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, brother.” Thanatos murmured, allowing himself to linger, allowing himself the small, selfish act of soaking in Hypnos’ warmth, “Let’s go home.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>